808s & Heartbreak is the fourth studio album by American producer and vocalist Kanye West. It was released on November 24, 2008, by Def Jam Recordings and Roc-A-Fella Records. West recorded the album during September and October 2008 at Glenwood Studios in Burbank, California and Avex Recording Studio in Honolulu, Hawaii, with the help of producers No I.D., Jeff Bhasker, and others. Guest vocalists on the album include Kid Cudi, Young Jeezy, Mr Hudson, and Lil Wayne.
Conceived in the wake of several distressing personal events, 808s & Heartbreak marked a major musical departure from West's previous rap records, instead featuring a sparse, electronic sound and vocals sung through an Auto-Tune processor. The production also abandons conventional hip hop sounds in favor of a minimalist sonic palette, with prominent use of the Roland TR-808 drum machine. West's lyrics explore themes of loss, alienated fame, and heartache, inspired by the breakup with his fiancé, his struggles with pop stardom, and the death of his mother.
808s & Heartbreak debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling just over 450,000 copies in its first week. Despite varying responses from listeners, the album received positive reviews from most music critics, who generally commented on West's experimentation, and was named one of 2008's best records in several year-end lists. Four singles were released in promotion, including the hit singles "Love Lockdown", which became West's highest Billboard Hot 100 debut of his career, and "Heartless". Despite its positive critical reception, the album was largely overlooked as a contender for the 52nd Grammy Awards, although the single "Amazing" received a nomination in the category of Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.
In the years since its release, 808s & Heartbreak has since been cited as a prominent influence on subsequent hip hop, pop, and R&B music, pioneering emo rap and experimental R&B developments in particular. This was due to a new wave of rappers, singers, and producers coming to adopt aspects of its style and thematic content. Rolling Stone included 808s & Heartbreak in its list of "The 40 Most Groundbreaking Albums of All Time" and ranked it number 244 on its revision to the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list. By 2013, the album had sold 1.7 million copies in the United States and in 2020 was certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Background[]
After the release of his third studio album Graduation in 2007, Kanye West experienced profoundly-affecting events in his personal life. On November 10, his mother Donda West died due to complications from cosmetic surgery involving a tummy tuck and breast reduction. Months later, West and his fiancée Alexis Phifer ended their engagement and long-term relationship, which had begun in 2002. At the same time, West was struggling to adapt to a newfound pop stardom he had once wanted, often becoming the subject of media scrutiny. His feelings of loss, loneliness, and longing for companionship and a sense of normalcy inspired 808s & Heartbreak. West later said, "this album was therapeutic – it's lonely at the top."
West felt that his emotions could not be fully expressed simply through rapping, which he said had limitations. There were "melodies that were in me", he explained. "What was in me I couldn't stop." Wanting to create a pop album, West dismissed the contemporary backlash to the concept of pop music and expressed admiration for what some pop stars had accomplished in their careers. He later stated that he wished to present the music as a new genre called "pop art", clarifying that he was well-aware of the visual art movement of the same name and wished to present a musical equivalent. "Either call it 'pop' or 'pop art,' either one I'm good with", he later stated.
Recording and production[]
The album was recorded over a span of approximately three weeks from September to October 2008. Recording sessions took place at Glenwood Studios in Burbank, California and at Avex Recording Studio in Honolulu, Hawaii. The 808 of the title is a reference to the Roland TR-808 drum machine, used heavily in the album. Drawing inspiration from 1980s synth-pop and electropop performers such as Phil Collins, Gary Numan, TJ Swan and Boy George, West felt that the 808 was a resourceful instrument that can be used to evoke emotion; the concept was introduced to him by Jon Brion. West utilized the sounds created by the 808 and manipulated its pitch to produce a distorted, electronic sound, an effect he referred to as "heartbreak". He felt the characteristic of the sound was representative of his state of mind. According to West, the fact that Hawaii's area code was "808" was coincidental, as he had already developed the album's title before being informed. The realization inspired him to pursue his direction with the album, however. In terms of musical direction, West's intentions, according to Mike Dean, were to defy the typical sound of hip-hop beats, instead evoking the presence of tribal drums. Overall, West maintained a "minimal but functional" approach to producing the album.
West credits rapper Kid Cudi, who had signed to his GOOD Music record label, with helping create the album's stark, brooding sound. After receiving a copy of his 2008 mixtape A Kid Named Cudi, West became an avid fan, especially of the hit single "Day 'n' Nite". West surprised Kid Cudi with a phone call and had him flown to Hawaii to work on 808s & Heartbreak. The pair worked together in the studio while having films such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind play silently in the background. Ultimately, Kid Cudi co-wrote four songs on 808s & Heartbreak. West told Rolling Stone, "His writing is just so pure and natural and important. [That's] more important than where things chart." No I.D., West's collaborator and former mentor, added that tracks for the album also originated from their concurrent recording for Jay-Z's The Blueprint 3 (2009). "Matter of fact, when we did 'Heartless,' [West] just stopped and said, 'No.' I was like, 'No what?' He was like, 'No way! This is my record!'", as No I.D. recalled. "I was like, 'Come on, man. Can we just finish the guy's album?' He was like, 'Nope. I'm doing an album.'"
For his vocals on 808s & Heartbreak, West employed the voice-audio processor technology of Auto-Tune. He had experimented with it on his 2004 debut album The College Dropout, specifically the background vocals of "Jesus Walks" and "Never Let Me Down", but he had not used it for lead vocals until 2008. "We were working on the remixes for Lil Wayne's 'Lollipop' and Young Jeezy's 'Put On' and he fell in love with the Auto-Tune", producer Mike Dean recalled. Towards the end, West enlisted T-Pain for coaching on how to utilize the technology. In an interview with Billboard, T-Pain said that West told him he had listened to his debut album Rappa Ternt Sanga (2005) before making 808s & Heartbreak. T-Pain also claimed that West brought him in to make 808s sound more like his debut album. West stated that he loved using Auto-Tune and was dismayed by popular notions dismissing the device as "wack". He considered it "the funnest thing to use" and found it analogous to when he was a child and thought the color pink was cool until someone told him "it was gay", suggesting how societal views can deprive people of their confidence and self-esteem. He later went on to state that he enjoyed the electronic feel produced by Auto-Tune and sought out to juxtapose the mechanical sounds with the traditional sounds of taiko drums and choir monks.
Young Jeezy contributed a rap verse on the track "Amazing" while "See You in My Nightmares" is a duet with Lil Wayne. Singer-songwriter Esthero provided the few female vocals found on the album; credited under birth name Jenny-Bea Englishman, she co-wrote three tracks. When "RoboCop" appeared on the Internet, West disclaimed responsibility and was upset that the leak had occurred as the track was an unfinished version. Mike Dean had previously stated that the track was expected to receive additional treatment by jazz musician Herbie Hancock before the album's release.
Music and lyrics[]
808s & Heartbreak is a radical departure from West's previous hip hop albums. According to The Independent, West abandoned his customary hip hop sound in favor of sparse, drum machine-based electropop; Pitchfork Scott Plagenhoef categorized the album as "an introspective, minimal electro-pop record," and 33⅓ writer Kirk Walker Graves said its music is avant-garde electropop. In the opinion of Rolling Stone Brian Hiatt, the record was a "downbeat detour into depressive electro pop," while another writer for the magazine called it an "introspective, synthpop album," According to Arsh Bains from 36 Chapters, the genres electropop, synth-pop, and experimental pop were a few of the many categorizations offered for the album after it was released. Andrew Sacher from BrooklynVegan suggests it is "closer to an experimental R&B album than to a rap album", and International Business Times writer Alex Garofalo specifically describes it as the former genre.
The music of 808s & Heartbreak draws heavily on electronic elements, particularly virtual synthesis, the Roland TR-808 drum machine, and explicitly auto-tuned vocal tracks. Tracks on the album utilize step input drum machine and synth-bass parts. Step input sequencing, a product of vintage analogue devices limited to recording only 16 individual notes, was popular in music production during the 1980s, but also became available in digital workstations. The album's music features austere production and elements such as dense drums, lengthy strings, droning synths, and somber piano. Andy Kellman of AllMusic writes of the music, "Several tracks have almost as much in common with irrefutably bleak post-punk albums, such as New Order's Movement and The Cure's Pornography, as contemporary rap and R&B". These musical elements help convey moods of despair and dejection that reflect the album's subject matter. For The A.V. Club, Nathan Rabin described the album's music as "split[ting] the difference between the auto-tune R&B of T-Pain and the glacial electronic atmospherics of '80s new wave at its loneliest". NJ.com columnist Trist McCall wrote that the record "stripped modern art-pop down to its iconic rudiments — beats, charismatic personalities, hand-selected melodies, and computer-assisted vocals".
West's singing has been characterized as "flat" and "nearly unmelodic" which "underscores his own cyborgish detachment". Andre Grant of HipHopDX wrote that "to combat this trenchant melancholia, he poured himself into an all-autotunes R&B album" which would prove divisive in hip hop. Canadian writer Stephen Marche viewed that West used "the shallow musical gimmickry of Auto-Tune, a program designed to eliminate individuality, and produced a hauntingly personal album".
Most of West's lyrics are directed at an ex-lover. In Robert Christgau's opinion, 808s & Heartbreak is a "slow, sad-ass and self-involved ... breakup album," while Plagenhoef found it "steeped in regret, pain, and even more self-examination than a typical Kanye West album". West refers to an ex-lover's treatment of him as "the coldest story ever told" on "Heartless", and on "RoboCop", she is called a "spoiled little L.A. girl" comparable to the antagonist in the 1990 film Misery. On "Paranoid", West describes a lover who "worries about the wrong things" and is pushing him away with her distrustful ways of thinking. With the introspective "Love Lockdown", West discusses the aftermath of a failed romantic relationship.
Among other themes, existential crisis is explored on "Welcome to Heartbreak", in which West's character dispassionately recounts sitting alone on a flight, with a laughing family seated behind him. The song harbors lament over the cost of past decisions and feelings of emptiness in a life of fame and luxury. West longs for his late mother on the album's penultimate track "Coldest Winter". The track contains an interpolation of the desolate 1983 song "Memories Fade" by Tears for Fears. According to Christgau, the closing "Pinocchio Story" is "the only track here about what's really bringing [West] down: not the loss of his girlfriend but the death of his mother, during cosmetic surgery that somewhere not too deep down he's sure traces all too directly to his alienated fame".
Artwork[]
The artwork for 808s & Heartbreak followed the minimalist style of the album. The cover art features a deflated heart-shaped balloon. It was photographed by Kristen Yiengst and designed by Virgil Abloh and Willo Perron, and the deluxe edition's artwork was made by pop artist Kaws. The album's artwork also include photographs of West, taken by Willy Vanderperre, and a photograph of West kissing his mother on the cheek, taken by Danny Clinch. In 2013, Complex named it the best rap album cover of the past five years.
Marketing[]
In August 2008, West performed at the Democratic National Convention, where he also previewed a demo of "Love Lockdown" to Dave Sirulnick, a producer for MTV. This led to West's premier of the song at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards on September 7, performing alongside 20 taiko drummers. On the set's dark-violet stage, he appeared wearing an Afro-mullet and a gray tweed jacket tailored with a broken-heart-shaped pin that would symbolize the 808s & Heartbreak-album era in West's career, according to Rolling Stone writer Charles Holmes: "His voice wavered, his onstage confidence was clearly fragile, but the 808s epoch began nonetheless."
On September 24, 2008, West announced that he had finished the album and would be releasing it sometime in November. In his blog post, he wrote "I changed my album to November something cause I finished the album and I felt like it..I want y'all to hear it as soon as possible." West later stated that the album would be released on November 25, 2008. However, Island Def Jam, the distributing label, brought the date forward by one day to capitalize on Thanksgiving weekend. A special edition of the album was later released on December 16, featuring the album in CD and dual LP format, along with album artwork redone by Kaws, the original cover artist.
On October 16, 2008, West released an excerpt of "Coldest Winter" on the radio station Power 106 in Los Angeles. The track recreates elements of the song "Memories Fade" by the band Tears for Fears. The song "Paranoid" later leaked onto the Internet and features Mr Hudson in the chorus. A remixed version of "Paranoid" was reported to feature pop singer Rihanna, but did not materialize. Also appearing prior to the release date were "Amazing" featuring Young Jeezy, "See You in My Nightmares" featuring Lil Wayne, "Street Lights", "Say You Will", "Welcome to Heartbreak" and "Bad News". A hidden track on 808s & Heartbreak, "Pinocchio Story" is a freestyle that was recorded live in Singapore. It was included as part of the album at the request of American musician Beyoncé.
On October 14, 2008, West collaborated with Italian artist Vanessa Beecroft in hosting a promotional album listening event at Ace Gallery. Over 700 guests were invited to preview the entirety of 808s & Heartbreak. Under Beecroft's guidance, the event featured approximately forty nude women wearing nothing besides wool masks who silently stood in the center of the room. The entire album played without introduction or explanation. The women were illuminated by multicolored lights that would change as the music progressed. When it came time for him to speak, West stated that he'd been a fan of Beecroft's work and strong imagery, saying that he liked the idea of nudity because "society told us to wear clothes at a certain point." Beecroft had been contacted a month prior and conceptualized and generated the installation in a week. Beecroft admitted that while he had caught her offguard, she had the opportunity to hear the album for herself and heard things that touched her own life. Attendees included Mos Def, will.i.am and Rick Ross. Five days later, promotional photos for the album by photographer Willy Vanderperre were released. The images portrayed West wearing a grey glen plaid suit, large browline glasses, and a heart-shaped pin.
In October 2009, West was scheduled to embark on a tour, Fame Kills: Starring Kanye West and Lady Gaga tour, in promotion of 808s & Heartbreak and Lady Gaga's The Fame Monster. It was canceled on October 1, 2009, without reason. Several songs from the album were performed by West during his live VH1 Storytellers performance, such as "Heartless", "Amazing" and "Say You Will".
Public reaction[]
Before its release, reaction to 808s & Heartbreak was mixed, ranging from anticipation to bewilderment and indifference to the album's concept. Upon the premier of "Love Lockdown" at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards, music audiences were taken aback by the uncharacteristic production style and the presence of Auto-Tune. The negative feedback intensified when West revealed that the entire album would be primarily sung with Auto-Tune rather than rapped and would focus on themes of love and heartache.
Numerous hip hop fans and certain rappers mocked West for becoming "sappy" while others deemed the upcoming LP as a throwaway experimental album. Comparisons were drawn to Electric Circus, an album recorded by West's labelmate and close friend Common. MTV eventually interviewed Common to share his thoughts and views on the artistic direction of the album. Common expressed both his understanding and his support for West's intentions, stating "I love it. I'mma tell you, as an artist, you wanna be free. I'mma do what I feel. You can't just cater to the audience. You gotta say, 'Hey, y'all, this is where I'm at.' For him to do an album called 808s and Heartbreak, you know that's where he is at this moment. I heard some songs, and I think it's fresh. I think the people are ready for it."
West received similar approval from Lil Wayne and Young Jeezy, both of whom contributed to the album. During an interview, when asked what music today inspires him, Wayne stated "everybody's doing their thing, but they're not exciting. Everybody is doing the same thing. That's terrible. Do I love the music that's out right now? I love it with a passion. Does it motivate me? Not one bit. That's because 808s & Heartbreak isn't out yet." Despite the approval from the rap superstars, as well as the record-breaking chart performances of the first two singles, hip hop audiences remained indifferent towards the album, predicting it would flop. Responding to reviews, West stated that he didn't care about sales or getting good ratings, saying that it came from the heart and that's all that matters to him. When asked about the current state of hip hop, West compared it to a high school, stating that hip hop used to be all about being fearless and standing out, and that now it is about being afraid and fitting in. Michael Jackson was an admirer of the album, with his daughter saying he played it for her "all the time." West went on to make the claim in October 2015 that despite many people rating My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy as his best album, 808s & Heartbreak is "so much stronger" in comparison.
Sales[]
In its first week of sales, 808s & Heartbreak reached the number one spot on the US Billboard 200 with sales of 450,000 album-equivalent units, significantly underselling Graduation in spite of an extra day of sales amidst a holiday week. The following week, the album descended three places to number four on the chart and experienced a 69% sales decline, selling 142,000 units. In the last week of 2008, 808s & Heartbreak sold 165,100 album-equivalent units, jumping six places from the eleventh spot to number five on the Billboard 200. It was reported to have sold 1,023,000 units by the end of 2008, of which 183,000 came from digital sales. The album moved up again in the first week of 2009, selling 70,000 album-equivalent units and landing at number three. On January 27, 2009, 808s & Heartbreak was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), serving as West's fourth album to ship one million copies in the United States. As of June 14, 2013, the album has sold 1.7 million copies in the US, according to Nielsen SoundScan; 1.63 million of these copies had apparently been sold by February 24, 2010.
808s & Heartbreak attained a peak position of number four on the Canadian Albums Chart. On July 13, 2009, the album was certified platinum by Music Canada for selling 80,000 copies. 808s & Heartbreak peaked at number 11 on the UK Albums Chart and lasted for 29 weeks on the chart. The album was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for shipments of 400,000 copies on April 14, 2017. 808s & Heartbreak also reached number 11 on the Irish Albums Chart. In 2008, the album was certified platinum by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA), indicating shipments of 15,000 copies. On the ARIA Albums Chart, 808s & Heartbreak peaked at number 12, standing as West's second lowest charting album in Australia. As of December 31, 2008, the album has been certified gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for shipments of 35,000 copies.
Despite the polarizing response to 808s & Heartbreak, its singles performed successfully on record charts. Upon its release, the lead single "Love Lockdown" debuted at number three on the US Billboard Hot 100 and became a "Hot Shot Debut". It is the highest debut of West's career, the second highest debut on the Hot 100 that year and the tenth song of the millennium to debut in the top three. Grossing over 1.3 million copies at the iTunes Store alone, the single was certified platinum by the RIAA by the end of the year. On August 18, 2010, it was certified triple platinum by the RIAA, for shipments of three million units in the US. The single was also met by positive reviews from music critics, eventually culminating with being crowned "Song of the Year" by Time. The second single, "Heartless" performed similarly and became West's second consecutive "Hot Shot Debut" by debuting at number four on the Billboard Hot 100. It was certified double platinum by the RIAA, having shipped two million units in the US. Due in part to the momentum produced by the album's release, certain tracks were met by chart success despite not actually being released as singles. The tenth track "See You in My Nightmares" became yet another "Hot Shot Debut", peaking at number 21 in the US and number 22 in Canada, while the fourth track "Amazing" charted at number 81 on the Hot 100. Following suit, "Welcome to Heartbreak" peaked at number 87 on the US Pop 100. 808s & Heartbreak and its singles helped West top the year-end Billboard 2009 charts as both the top male Billboard 200 and Hot 100 artist.
Legacy and influence[]
Although West conceived 808s & Heartbreak as a melancholic pop album, it proved to have a significant effect on hip hop music. While his decision to sing about love, loneliness, and heartache for the entirety of the album was at first heavily criticized by music audiences and the album predicted to be a flop, its subsequent critical acclaim and commercial success encouraged other mainstream rappers to take greater creative risks with their music. During the marketing of The Blueprint 3, Jay-Z said that his next studio album would be an experimental effort, stating, "... it's not gonna be a #1 album. That's where I'm at right now. I wanna make the most experimental album I ever made." Jay-Z elaborated that like West, he was unsatisfied with contemporary hip hop, was being inspired by indie-rockers like Grizzly Bear and asserted his belief that the indie rock movement would play an important role in the continued evolution of hip hop. The album impacted hip hop stylistically and laid the groundwork for a new wave of hip hop artists who generally eschewed typical rap braggadocio for intimate subject matter and introspection, including B.o.B, Kid Cudi, Childish Gambino, Frank Ocean, and Drake.
In 2011, Jake Paine of HipHopDX dubbed the album as "our Chronic," noting West's effect on hip hop with 808s & Heartbreak as "a sound, no different than the way Dr. Dre's synthesizer challenged the boom-bap of the early '90s." Fact described the record as an "art-pop masterpiece [which] broke the shackles of generations of one-upmanship [in hip hop]." In Rolling Stone, journalist Matthew Trammell asserted that the record was ahead of its time and wrote in a 2012 article, "Now that popular music has finally caught up to it, 808s & Heartbreak has revealed itself to be Kanye’s most vulnerable work, and perhaps his most brilliant." Drake's 2009 mixtape So Far Gone received comparisons from critics to 808s & Heartbreak. Todd Martens of the Los Angeles Times cited 808s & Heartbreak as "the template [...] for essentially the entirety of Drake's young career," and that wrote that he "shares West's love for mood and never-ending existential analysis." In a 2009 interview, Drake cited West as "the most influential person" in shaping his own sound. Similarly to So Far Gone, Drake's 2010 debut album Thank Me Later was compared to 808s & Heartbreak by critics.
808s & Heartbreak is credited with giving rise to the emo rap subgenre. According to Greg Kot, 808s & Heartbreak initiated the "wave of inward-looking sensitivity" and "emo"-inspired rappers during the late 2000s: "[It] presaged everything from the introspective hip-hop of Kid Cudi's Man on the Moon: The End of Day (2009) to the wispy crooning, plush keyboards and light mechanical beats of Bon Iver's Justin Vernon and British dub-step balladeer James Blake." For Pitchfork, Jayson Greene wrote: "The only thing more influential than the album's sound might be its tone: bitter, confused, self-pitying, defensive, and accusatory." Consequence credited it with shaping subsequent developments in "indie R&B or electropop or whatever you want to call it": "808s' is flooded with R&B and it digitizes the raw emotion and isolated feelings that [James Blake and The Weeknd] have carved their brands out of today." Craig D. Linsey from The Village Voice wrote that the album's "naked humanity ... practically set off the emo-rap/r&b boom that everyone from Drake to Frank Ocean to The Weeknd now traffic in." Marcus Scott of Giant said rappers such as B.o.B, Drake, and Kid Cudi followed West's album with similarly minded works, citing West's introspective, emotional themes and synthpop/"Vangelis-inspired" music as influences. Billboard writer Michael Saponara credits its influence on the late-2010s music of Juice Wrld, who himself admitted, "I was singing 'Street Lights' like I had shit to be sad about. Kanye is a time traveler. ... went to damn near 2015 and came back with some sauce." Lil Uzi Vert, another emo rapper, said that the album "changed my life".
In the opinion of Billboard senior editor Alex Gale in 2016, the album was "the equivalent of (Bob) Dylan going electric, and you still hear that all the time, in hip-hop and outside of hip-hop." In 2014, Rolling Stone named the album as one of the 40 most groundbreaking albums of all time, noting that it "served as a new template for up-and-comers in hip-hop and R&B." Speaking with Pitchfork Ryan Dombal that year, Tom Krell said his music project How to Dress Well "would not be possible" without West's album, which Dombal described as an "emo&B opus". On the album's 10th anniversary in 2018, The Boombox writer Bobby Olivier found its continued influence evident in the works of Post Malone and Travis Scott, as well as the commercial dominance of hip hop in the US in general, although he said it remains West's least valued album. Olivier contended that, by "morph[ing] his shattered soul into a piece of wondrous millennial art-pop", West had "played anti-hero to his acclaimed collegiate trilogy" and begun "the demolition between rap, pop and EDM genre lines in earnest", drawing "a blueprint for hip-hop in the 2010s, where minimalism and melancholy could prove just as propulsive as boom-bap and classic gangster bravado, and where oft-maligned auto-tune could weaponize a voice and reshape it as a compelling new instrument".
Rolling Stone listed 808s & Heartbreak at #244 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" in 2020.[1]
Hollywood Bowl concerts[]
On September 25 and 26, 2015, West performed a re-arranged version of the album in its entirety at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. The performance involved numerous collaborators, including vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth, orchestral performers, more than sixty dancers, rappers Lil Wayne, Kid Cudi, and Young Jeezy, as well as actress Zoë Kravitz. On October 20, 2015, West released a studio version of "Say You Will" featuring vocals by American composer and violinist Caroline Shaw, from Roomful of Teeth, onto his SoundCloud account, similar to the version performed at the Hollywood Bowl.
References[]
- ↑ Rolling Stone (September 22, 2020). "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".